Slipping
by AGENT Kuma-chan
Summary: For as long as he can remember, Sai has been raised to have no emotions. He doesn't know what it feels like to be happy or sad or angry. So when his teammates express their emotions, he wonders what it feels like. He doesn't know how to feel, or does he?


Disclaimer: looks around shiftily I OWN NAR---OMPH! gets attacked by a dozen lawyers.

**Slipping**

_Slowly, ever so slowly, his mask was slipping. It was cracking and falling apart. Pretty soon, it would be completely gone._

**I –Joy**

Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi were waiting patiently at the bridge for their other teammate to join them. Soon, their wait was over, as the clip-clopping sound of her running was heard. Looking to their right, the boys watched as the small figure at the horizon slowly grew bigger. Soon, they could see the green in her eyes and the bright grin on her face.

When she finally reached then, Sakura panted slightly. She never had the endurance her teammates had, and was tired from running around so much. When she finally caught her breath again, Sakura told them, "We-we've gotta gasp go to Tsunade-shishou; she's celebrating something wants us to join her."

"Celebrating what?" Sai asked, curious, but you couldn't tell (his voice never really changed, remaining the same flat tone).

"DOES IT MATTER? She's CELEBRATING, and that mean's FREE FOOD!" Naruto yelled, before shooting a dirty look at Sai and muttering, "What sort of a person questions free food?"

The blonde boy and the pink-haired girl looked at each other, grinning at the thought of going to a party. Then, not wanting to miss a moment of it, they headed off to the restaurant.

As he watches them leave, Sai wonders, "Why were they so happy? What is so special about a party?" He's never been to one before, and most likely would never go, but that changed when his _teammates_ returned and took him (dragged forcibly) to the place.

After hours of drinking sake (Tsunade (the drunk one) threatened that if he didn't, he would no longer be a shinobi), eating food (fat—no, Choji wanted an eating buddy), dancing to music (in this case, the hag wanted to have a partner that is able to dance, not that he can any more; she stomped on his foot for calling her a hag) , and listening to others converse (mainly to Ino talking about her beauty), Sai gathered that it was an event for people to socialize. The brightly colored lights took away dark corners, and the warm, scent-filled air got rid of the cold (what cold and darkness there was, he wasn't sure. Though he was sure it included him). The food and drink dragged the atmosphere that surrounded the guests and made it live inside the people, so that when they left, they would have a little something of this event remain with them. So, in an attempt to learn more about emotions and people (not that he wanted to experience this feeling himself), he tried to mimic the smiles and laughs surrounding him—it was good data.

However, it wasn't till later, when Sakura and Tsunade teamed up to beat up Jiryia and Naruto (the two males where acting perverted again and accidentally attacked the two girls; something they would never attempt again after tonight), and Kakashi and Yamato had a contest on who was the scariest (they both lost to Anko, as she had the scariest personality when she got drunk). It was then, as he watched his village's best ninjas destroy the restaurant, that he truly understood what a party is like, if not what it was for and what it did (besides making sensible people act odd).

_(When no one was looking, he smiled and allowed himself to chuckle.)_

**II—Disappointment **

"Kuso!" the blue-eyed boy cursed.

As Sasuke yet again left Team Kakashi, Naruto frowned. Curling his right hand into a fist, he punched a tree nearby. As if that was not enough pain and venting for him, he then turned to another tree and punched it. And then another. All the while muttering something about being too weak (for no matter how strong they got, they never seemed to be able to save their wayward teammate. They never seemed like they could stop him).

However, the team's cherry blossom didn't seem as frustrated as Naruto. She instead gathered her chakra into her left arm (the weaker one, as she couldn't perfectly get both arms as strong as each other) and punched the hard, rocky ground in front of her. After watching the earth crack and turn into rubble, she then gracefully sat down on top of the cool grass. Turning her eyes, and then head, upward, she looked at the blue sky emotionlessly. Her eyes seemed to be not seeing, as if she wasn't there, and a tiny tear formed, before sliding down. After that single tear, none flowed, as if she couldn't bring herself to cry again (for she couldn't allow herself to show weakness).

For a second, Sai felt confused by their actions. As he looked slowly from one teammate to the other, he slowly recalled their actions and analyzed them. Thinking it over, realization dawned. His teammates were angry at _themselves_, and they were disappointed. They didn't get angry at the traitor, they didn't blame each other. Instead they battled themselves. He slowly walked over to where the girl sat, and then leaned against a tree. He continued to watch them, carefully noting these reactions to memory, and waited for them to return to normal (for dickless to act hyper and the hag to punch him down). He couldn't do anything to help them, as disappointment is something he never felt before (all of his missions were done perfectly) and he didn't know what else to do but wait.

_Not that he realized that the heavy feeling in his chest was sorrow that they didn't succeed this time. He dismissed it as tiredness. _

**III—Worry**

WHOOSH! THUD! Sakura dodged one of the kunai speeding towards her, only to have another hit her in the back. It lodged itself at a pressure point, not deep enough to kill, but at the right spot to knock her out. Eyes widening, she quickly crumpled to her knees and was soon lying face down on the ground.

"SAKURA-CHAN!!" Naruto yelled, as he had turned around just in time to witness the whistling kunai hit his friend. "Oomph!" he grunted as he got punched in his shoulder during the moment he looked away from his opponent. He turned back and dodged the next punch swung at him. "I don't have TIME for this!" he growled, before quickly knocking out the guy he was fighting. "SAKURA-CHAN!" he yelled again, worried for her health, as he quickly ran over to the unconscious girl's side. He hesitated, before placing his hands gently on her shoulders and turning her around so she faced the sky. "Sakura-chan?" he softly whispered, shaking her shoulders slightly.

Sai soon joined them and checked the collapsed girl's pulse. It was there, but it was weak. "She's alive, don't worry," Sai said, calming Naruto down. Naruto's eyes widened with relief, before he carefully handed the girl to Sai. "Teme, watch her," was all that Naruto said before attacking the enemy again. This time, he didn't stop until each of them was battered and bruised.

"We should get back to Konoha now. She still needs some help," Sai's voice stopped Naruto from just beating the enemy ninja again. Running back to the black-haired boy, Naruto let Sai carry Sakura, and instead he ran ahead trying to get the hospital ready.

_It wasn't until they got back and Sakura woke-up that Sai finally relaxed._

**IV—Anger**

"Heard of those brats?" a man drawled out drunkenly. He was in a dingy, dimly-lit bar, talking to the bartender.

"No, what brats?" the bartender politely asked. He had to listen to all of his customers long stories (some true while others were pure fantasy)—it was just a part of the job.

"You know, the oh-so-great Team Seven," the drunk continued, "more like a group of failures."

"How?" the bartender asked, getting curious.

As he raked on of his dirty hands through his short, unkempt hair, he said, "Let me tell you how," he was obviously waiting for this moment, "You see, one is a monster. Sure, we named him, give him 'people things' (like a home, food, clothes, books), teach him sacred ninja arts, put him on a team full of normal people, but he is _still_ a monster. Nothing will change that. No matter how much we disguise it, he will _remain_ a monster. He should be destroyed, like a stray animal is (no, it should be a painful death for him because he has killed so many in his demon form), but because he looks like us, we can't. Another, the girl, is a normal human. But she is a weak, unable-to-control-her-emotions ninja. She is almost worse than Naruto (for that is the demon's human name), as Sakura (that is the girl's name) can barely fight. Sure, they all say she's improved, that now she can save a life and kill one with the touch of her finger, but she couldn't have changed that much. She must have remained the same, a liability to all ninja as she has to be constantly protected. And as she lets her heart guide her actions, she would let any mission she's in charge of fail. And then, there's the traitorous Uchiha Sasuke. He could have done so well, as he is an Uchiha. He had perfect marks, amazing capabilities, and would have been one of the greatest ninja. He would have been the one factor that redeemed the rest of Team Seven's failures (for even their teacher, the great Kakashi, had problems; he is a pervert and is always late), but then he left us. Which is too bad; leaving us to join our enemy that murdered the Third (may his soul rest in peace). However, now he is a failure too."

"What about the new guy, Sai?"

"He…seems to be strong, but since he's with Team Seven…" the drunk thought this over for a moment. Amazingly enough, even though he had drunk 7 bottles of sake, he was still able to speak properly and think. Finally, he seemed to have made up his mind. The bartender watched as the customer slowly opened his mouth. About to speak, he was suddenly punched and fell to the floor, knocked out. Eyes wide, the bartender looked around to see what happened when he noticed that in front of him was a dark-haired, dark-eyed, pale-skinned boy. The boy had a fake smile pasted on his face, but his eyes seemed to hold some unknown emotion—anger? The boy spoke, and the bartender recognized him to be the last teammate of the infamous Team Seven, Sai. "Sorry, but I can't have a drunken man speaking about things he doesn't know about. After all, even if their reputation is tarnished, I still have to work with them. And I can't have my teammates badmouthed at." Still smiling, the boy slinked out of the bar before the bartender could gather his wits.

_He felt some strange elation over hurting the drunk, but ignored it, thinking that he was being affected by the smell of alcohol. _

**V—Painting**

Slowly dipping his paintbrush into a bottle, he carefully stoked a line across the canvas in front of him. "_Nearly there…"_ Sai thought as he opened other bottles and dipped his paintbrushes into them. Making slow but certain strokes, he quickly finished the painting in front of him.

"TEME!! HURRY UP! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" a voice yelled, breaking the artist's concentration. Turning his head to his left, he looked outside his window to see his blonde teammate waving frantically at him. The green-eyed girl was there too, sitting on the grass and reading a medical book. Smiling his fake smile, Sai turned back to his painting and made one final change to it before he left.

Quickly cleaning his paintbrushes, the pale boy closed his bottles and put his equipment back into their cabinets. Then, putting his painting in an area where it could dry faster, he quickly left and leapt down to his teammates. He ignored the squawk that Naruto made in surprise, as he thought, "_When will I get 'feelings', the ones that they have."_

And as he left for his next mission his thoughts were not at all on the painting he was just working on. The painting that he had painstakingly worked on for the past few days making sure that it was perfect. The painting that had the faces of five very familiar people:

In the front left, one that had hair as bright as the summer-sun (but had shadows to show not all was bright), eyes that were as blue as the sky (they glimmered with mischief and a touch of sadness), and a grinning face (there were some lines of seriousness so that the face didn't give off the aura of being a complete prankster) that made the boy look good-looking.

In the middle (the middle of the front and the middle of the painting), was a face that had short, rosette locks that framed the face (and partially hid one of her eyes), green, cat-shaped eyes (filled with compassion and heartbreak), and a gentle smile (one that showed both her joy and her sorrow) that made her look breathtaking.

In the front right (on the girl's other side), was the face that haunted many dreams. A face with thick, so-black-that-it-look-blue locks of sable hair that covered his face slightly (the hair was in the usual spiky style, but none of the front locks blocked the view of his face), serious onyx eyes (there were tints of blue in them that gave him a human look, and maybe also showed some regret), and his lips formed a smirk (a smirk that showed arrogance and pride and a promise), that all together made him look handsome.

In the back, two older-looking faces could be seen.

One had tall, grey hair (light grey, with streaks of darker grey; amazingly, it defied gravity), gray eyes (or rather, eye, as one eye was covered by his mask. The one eye was nearly in the usual half-smile look it had, but you could see some of the eye, and there was warmth in it, as well as regret for past deeds), and a black cloth (mask) covered the rest of the face (giving him an air of mystery, making on wonder what was behind his mask and what happened in his past). He looked a little weary, but most likely had a stunning face behind his mask.

The other face was dark-haired as well, but it wasn't well seen. It was partially hidden (because, for some reason there was a tree partially in front of him. The tree wasn't natural, as there weren't any other trees in the picture). What you could see was a single eye (it had amusement in it, and maybe a little lost looking, as if the person seeing through the eye was not meant to be there; not meant to be alive) and part of a smile (that seemed to make you wonder, why was there a hint of fear when one looked at that smile. Fear of the viewer, and fear in the face). The face also looked slightly frightening.

Those were the faces seen immediately, but if one looked, there was one last face left.

While the other faces could be easily seen and were completely finished, this last face was not finished. It was off to a side, with the face outlined. The hair was colored in (it was a dark black too, but seemed to be more flat than the other black-haired face), but nothing else seemed to be done on it. There was an outline of eyes, and an outline of a smile, but it was made in pencil. It seemed as if the artist did not know what to draw in the face.

Sai was waiting until he actually gained emotions to fill in his face.

_However, if he looked carefully, he would have noticed what Sakura saw every time she looked at his paintings. There were emotions in them, emotions that Sai could not express himself but he managed to paint them. _

_And one day, that mask will fall off completely and show a new, expression-filled face._

**A/N:** In case you didn't realize, the faces in the painting were (in order):

Naruto (if you didn't realize this, what are you doing here)

Sakura (how many other PINK-HAIRED girls do you know)

Sasuke (the whole story is currently chasing this fellow)

Kakashi (well, you must be as late as him to not notice this)

Yamato (Halfway through writing his description, I forgot what he looked liked, so it is ok if you didn't recongize that one)

Sai (the ONLY character left. And the one this story's ABOUT)

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